CORE VALUES

In 2022 the elders of Christ Community Church decided that establishing values to help guide the ministry endeavors of this church into the future were important to adopt. These values do not create our culture, although they will help to guard it, but rather are an expression of a culture that God by His grace has allowed to already flourish. Each of these value statements follow a structure; an expression of our focus and commitment, a brief definition of the key word and the practical impact of the value for our Christian faith both positively and negatively.

Gospel Centered

We will live with a focus on a life of repentance and faith (2 Peter 1:3). The Gospel, that historic message that God saves sinners! By being centered around this value we mean to put an emphasis on the implications of that gospel message; the supremacy of Christ, the centrality of the heart, the reality of sin, and the call to change and growth. This value helps our Christian faith from becoming religious moralism or simple behaviorism.

Faithful to Scripture

We will live with a focus on truth (John 17:17). The Scripture is that written testimony of God which is authoritative, inerrant, infallible and thus the trustworthy foundation for a coherent worldview and understanding of reality. God’s Word gives the shape and contours of our lives through its preaching and teaching and our living and thinking. This value helps our Christian faith from slipping into relativism and thus liberalism.

Making Disciples

We will live with a focus on mission (Matt 28:19). A disciple is one who follows and obeys the master as a student and fulfills the masters will. Discipleship is holistic- it renews the mind (the intellect), it restores the soul (emotions) and it transforms the life (behaviors). This value helps our Christian faith remain on task to the Great Commission and from becoming merely religious socialism.

Building the Church

We will live with a focus on God’s salvation history (Eph 3:9-11). The church is a covenant community of believers marked off by the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s supper, who are overseen by biblically qualified elders who preach the gospel, practice the ordinances and protect the flock. This value keeps us focused on God’s plan of redemption that includes us (as individual christians and as a local church) but transcends us as well. We live with a covenant not a consumer mentality, we have a tri-perspectival view of the church as local, global and universal with an upward (God-centered), outward (missional) and inward (equipping and edifying) emphasis. This value helps our Christian faith avoid individualism.